The Suns need to offer 27-year old PF Amare Stoudemire a max deal to keep him in Phoenix. Stoudemire played in 82 games (all starts) last season for the Suns and he averaged 34.6 minutes, 23.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.0 blocked shot. He has now played in 516 games (499 starts) in his 8 years with the Suns and he is averaging 34.3 minutes, 21.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.4 blocked shots per game. Stoudemire is tenth all-time in games played with the Suns appearing in 516. He is also #3 in rebounds (4,613), #5 in blocked shots (722) and #6 in points (11,035) in Suns’ history. The Suns just can’t afford to let Stoudemire go.

UPDATE: Stoudemire has opted out of his contract becoming a unrestricted free agent. The Suns will keep talking to him as they can’t really afford to let him go. Remember it wasn’t that long ago that the Suns were pushing the Lakers in the Conference Finals.

UPDATE II: (7/9/2010) - The Suns have done a sign and trade deal with the Knicks for Stoudemire. The Suns will get a $16.5 million dollar trade exception and a conditional 2nd round pick for Stoudemire. That’s not much but it’s better than letting him walk away for nothing.

Steve Nash has to be tired of losing early in the playoffs, and the 36-year-old knows he doesn’t have too many opportunities left to win a championship.  That has been evident so far in the Suns series against the Spurs, where Nash came out very aggressive on offense and set the tone for the series by pouring 33 points and 10 assists.  Nash had more of a scorer’s mentality in that game one victory, which looked like it caught the Spurts off guard a little bit.  Nash was a little less aggressive shooting the ball in game two, but he still managed the flow of the game very nicely to lead them to another win to put them up 2-0 on the veteran Spurs.  Game three starts tonight in San Antonio, so it will be interesting to see how the experienced Spurs team performs at home.  It could be a difficult environment for the Suns, but as long as they have Nash playing the way he is they will have a great chance to go up 3-0 tonight.

With the 37-year-old Grant Hill still making big contributions to the Phoenix Suns and their current playoff run against the Portland Trail Blazers, it got me thinking about just how amazing this guy’s career has been.  He has gone through six major surgeries in his career, five on his ankles and one hernia surgery.  He is a starter for the Phoenix Suns and averaged 11.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.7 steals while shooting 48% from the field, 44% from three, and 82% from the free-throw line.  Through two playoff games against the Trail Blazers so far, he has upped his averages 12.0 point, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.0 assist.  He only had 4 points in game one, but in the Suns’ game two win he had 20 points and 8 rebounds in only 25 minutes.  It is pretty impressive that Hill is still able to play at such high level, especially when you consider his age and all of the injuries he had to battle through.  If not for those injuries, Hill probably would have ended up as a Hall of Fame player.  He deserves a ton of respect for the way he battled through all those injuries and has still been able to put together a great career.

23-year old point guard Goran Dragic will be a very important player for the Suns the rest of the season. The Suns will likely need to limit Steve Nash’s minutes a bit even in the playoffs in a attempt to keep him healthy. Dragic will man the point when Nash is resting. Dragic has played in 75 games (2 starts) for the Suns this season and he is averaging 18.0 minutes, 7.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

Reserve forward Louis Amundson has really stepped up off the bench for the Suns this season. He has played in 68 games (0 starts) for the Suns this season in which he is averaging 14.4 minutes, 4.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. Amundson is shooting 53.7% from the floor this year as he is making his shots count. The Suns need him to keep up the good work.